This article is taken from a post on the Royal Society for Public Health on 24 June 2015
RSPH welcomes the new NICE guidelines that make recommendations on how organisations can improve the health and wellbeing of employees.
“In a country where work-related illness and workplace injury cost society an estimated 28.2 million working days and £14.2 billion, it should be a no-brainer for health and wellbeing to be a core priority for every organisation,” says Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive, RSPH.
“Aside from fulfilling a moral obligation to promote good health among the workforce, an organisational culture that fosters a working environment that protects the physical and mental health and wellbeing of its employees is key to creating a more productive, profitable and sustainable organisation. The NICE recommendations are a good reminder to managers that success is not determined solely by offering attractive terms and conditions of service.”
In presenting the business and economic case for improving employee health and wellbeing, recommendations on key issues include:
- Developing policies that address work/life balance to enable individuals to cope successfully with the demands and pressures of work
- Providing opportunities for employees to have a voice in the organisation
- Using line managers effectively as a communication channel linking employees to the organisation
- Ensure line managers receive relevant training
The guideline emphasises the importance of ensuring that leaders and managers at all levels of an organisation are good role models.
“Recent RSPH research found that the public were less trusting of advice from those they did not consider good role models, for example only 1 in 10 said they would take advice on diet and exercise from an overweight GP,” says the CEO of RSPH. “This can be translated into an important message for leaders everywhere. The relevance of the idiom ‘do as I say not as I do’ belongs to another era.
“Managers and leaders everywhere should be fully trained and supported to help them play their part in promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace. RSPH initiatives, including developing organisational Health Champions, offer simple ways of ensuring policy and intention becomes reality.”
Read more on this topic here and see how The Life Adventure is stepping into the corporate health and wellbeing space here.